The thing to me is that it sounds like he's not necessarily trying to get IoC's bid disqualified. The article states very plainly that if the board finds the IoC's inclusion of the arena to be OK under the law, Barden is going to revise his plan to include funding for a new arena.

If he does this, the pressure on Harrah's gets ratcheted up considerably.

FC and Harrah's because it would serve the city right to have an alabtross of those luxury condos be empty for decades to come because they didn't do not only the right thing but also the politically correct thing in supporting the plan that makes the city better.

The thing to me is that it sounds like he's not necessarily trying to get IoC's bid disqualified. The article states very plainly that if the board finds the IoC's inclusion of the arena to be OK under the law, Barden is going to revise his plan to include funding for a new arena.

If he does this, the pressure on Harrah's gets ratcheted up considerably.

This is bad news.

There's no doubt in my mnd that the 'spirit' of the law is being violated by the CURRENT IoC bid, let alone Barden.

I fully expect a two pronged attack from FC/Ratner. First, they'll challenge the financial strength of both IoC and Barden. Second they'll mount a legal challenge on this very section of the law.

If the State judicary goes according to the letter of the law, a strong case can be made that even FC's offer to give $25 million to another regional initiative (and the association with Franco) would also be considered outside the law.

Having said all of that, these Pols are greedy, and I'm wondering if you might not see them rush a amendment to the law if it looks like a challenge is inevitable.

The thing to me is that it sounds like he's not necessarily trying to get IoC's bid disqualified. The article states very plainly that if the board finds the IoC's inclusion of the arena to be OK under the law, Barden is going to revise his plan to include funding for a new arena.

If he does this, the pressure on Harrah's gets ratcheted up considerably.

This is bad news.

There's no doubt in my mnd that the 'spirit' of the law is being violated by the CURRENT IoC bid, let alone Barden.

I fully expect a two pronged attack from FC/Ratner. First, they'll challenge the financial strength of both IoC and Barden. Second they'll mount a legal challenge on this very section of the law.

If the State judicary goes according to the letter of the law, a strong case can be made that even FC's offer to give $25 million to another regional initiative (and the association with Franco) would also be considered outside the law.

Having said all of that, these Pols are greedy, and I'm wondering if you might not see them rush a amendment to the law if it looks like a challenge is inevitable.

If they are going to challenge, they'd better put an amendment into the law because every applicant across the state are throwing in local contributions of some sort. In fact, it was encouraged by all of the politicans at every level.